Tea art brightens life of left-behind children

Jiang Birou, 19, still remembers the excitement she had experienced when attending her first tea ceremony class as a sixth-grade student.

"That was my first extra-curricular class," Jiang said, adding that tea ceremony had brightened her childhood.

Located in the midst of mountains at a high altitude, Jiang's hometown in Weishan, Central China's Hunan province, has favorable conditions for tea plantation but is marred with less arable land and inconvenient transportation. As a result, a large number of youths migrate to cities for better job opportunities, leaving behind their children and parents.

Jiang was once such a left-behind child. "When I was a little girl, I used to help my grandparents pick tea leaves, and I didn't have much communication with my parents."

The change came in 2012 when Jiang's school organized a slew of extra-curricular activities and Jiang was the first to sign up for the tea ceremony class.